Given a free and open chance to leave the sect, four of five Amish young adults elect to stay.
Amish kids do not have a free and open chance to leave! What will it take slay this myth? This portrayal is an attempt to identify an aspect of Amish life which western culture can relate to. What is more sacred in western culture than choice? (see, they're just like us!) Too bad it's all projection on our part.
The Amish are first and foremost an authoritarian community. They're doctrine is very clear, leaving is a ticket to eternal damnation! If you're seventeen years old and have been immersed in an all encompassing propaganda that promotes that view point, how valid is the idea that you have a choice?
I applaud promoting our commonality, but doing so with utter disregard for their reality is demeaning. Erroneously projecting our values onto them is arrogant on our part and reveals a contempt for their real identity. To top it off, the over all gist of the article pretends to cast them in a favorable light. What a crock of hoooie!
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